Author Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Margaret Atwood


Canadian
November 18, 1939
Novelist
wave surf water sea spray wind
War is what happens when language fails.


Margaret Atwood
sun denmark summer sea nature
Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: Society Does Art
waterfall water nature river falls
A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: You Like Less
sunset denmark sea coast water
Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: Than Better Means
surf water wave sea nature 3104869surf water wave sea nature
A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.


Margaret Atwood
sun beach summer ocean sea water
Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow.


Margaret Atwood
wave smashing foam spray sea
I was warped early by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe. I was very fond of Franz Kafka.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: Very Early Ray
north sea wave coast water beach
Once upon a time, novelists of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens, published in serial form.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: Time Once Form
tree trunk forest trees nature
I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.


Margaret Atwood
Tags: Very Which Then
You quickly find, when you are a hand-reader as I am, that nothing interests people so much as themselves.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: You People Much
Reading and writing are connected. I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Very Which Then
The darkness is really out there. It's not something that's in my head, just. It's in my work because it's in the world.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Work Just Because
If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary.
Margaret Atwood
I'm a person of whim, and easily distracted. I don't like multitasking. When I'm doing one thing, I like to do just that thing.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Like Just Thing
Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit in?
Margaret Atwood
Tags: You People Just
We shouldn't be saying 'Save the planet'; we should be saying: 'Save viable conditions in which people can live.' That's what we're dealing with here.
Margaret Atwood
I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Hope People Will
If you're waiting for the perfect moment, you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There's nothing foolproof.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: You Because Will
Within one's own family, money is not the measure of things, unless the person is an absolute Scrooge. Only the most extreme kind of monster would put a price on everything.
Margaret Atwood
Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Space You Your
You will always have partial points of view, and you'll always have the story behind the story that hasn't come out yet. And any form of journalism you're involved with is going to be up against a biased viewpoint and partial knowledge.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Knowledge You Out
I got into trouble a while ago for saying that I thought the internet led to increased literacy - people scolded me about the shocking grammar to be found online - but I was talking about fundamentals: quite simply, you can't use the net unless you can read.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: You People Me
The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Good Poetry Me
Please don't make the mistake of thinking that 'Oryx and Crake' is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it's neutral.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Science Like Make
We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: About Think Just
Communications technology changes possibilities for communication, but that doesn't mean it changes the inherited structure of the brain. So you may think that you're addicted to online reading, but as soon as it isn't available anymore, your brain will pretty immediately adjust to other forms of reading. It's a habit like all habits.
Margaret Atwood
If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling. I don't want to open up my cornflakes and find that they're full of pebbles... You need to respect the reader enough not to call it something it isn't.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: Respect You Up
Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don't go there to swim, then those young people don't have to find out by trial and error.
Margaret Atwood
Tags: You People Out